It’s just a game. Sure it is. Countless gamers rank Strat-O-Matic Pro Football No. 1 as the simulation that offers the most intense head-to-head competition. There’s nothing like the every-down mind games against a human or computer foe to make you understand the thrills and anguish of an NFL head coach. Seriously Football – Strat-O-Matic.

Strat-O-Matic has created the most realistic simulation of statistically accurate pro football for more than 40 years. Every player is rated with statistical precision in every phase of his talent – passing, running and receiving. Offensive linemen are rated separately for run blocking and pass blocking. Defenders are rated on their ability to stuff the run, shut down the pass and sack the quarterback. The real league leaders will rise to the top in your games. The underachievers will undermine your game plan. Each player’s strengths – and weaknesses – will come to life before your eyes.

Like all classic games, Strat-O-Matic Pro Football is easy to learn swiftly, yet challenging enough to fascinate for a lifetime. Gamers keep coming back every year for the updated teams with the latest players, and for the endless enjoyment of Strat-O-Matic’s unique blend of realism, statistical accuracy and ease of play.

As a computer game or as a board game, Strat-O-Matic is thoroughly interactive – YOU are the head coach! Whether playing solitaire or joining the many thousands playing Strat-O-Matic in leagues, face-to-face and online, YOU make the choices about which plays to call and which players to rely on. Do you play to your strengths or attack your opponent’s weakness? In Strat-O-Matic, the decisions you make all game long determine victory or defeat.

From your first purchase, you customize the Strat-O-Matic experience. Will you outwit the clever computer coach, or will you win a chess-like battle with a friend in the board game?

You can do both when you purchase the computer game with the cards, taking advantage of a steep discount for combining the purchase. Many computer gamers feel they are shrewder play-callers when they know the cards that are the foundation of the game. They often opt to pay the nominal charge for the computer Card Image option that gives them all the detail of the board game to go with the speed and ease of the computer.

How to Play Strat-O-Matic Pro Football (computer game)

Strat-O-Matic is such a great strategy game because you can make your decisions swiftly, but get an endless variety of results. That’s the genius of a game that tests your football IQ. It’s the pleasure of a game that entertains you with animation that matches the statistically accurate performances of real NFL players – the stars and the role players.

You’ll choose your teams from the actual NFL schedule or any combination of teams from dozens of available seasons. You’ll challenge a friend at home or online (from anywhere in the world with our Netplay option!). Or take on the intuitive computer coach that keeps track of your play-calling tendencies.

Then the play-calling drama unfolds, followed by the thrills of seeing whether you have outfoxed your opponent.

Back to the offense: Now that you see the defensive look, choose the ball-carrier or primary receiver. Click. Select the play – run inside or out, right or left? Pass in the flat, downfield or deep? Click.

Now it’s the defense’s last chance: You don’t know the offensive play call, but the formation, the down-and-distance, and the personnel on the field give you clues. Bring a linebacker (or three), or drop them back in pass protection? Leave the free safety home, or blitz? Key a runner to stuff the run, or double-team that stud receiver? Every action creates an advantage in one place and a disadvantage somewhere else. Are you sure? Click.

Now the computer reveals the calls and the animation shows the action. You’ll see if that star pass rusher beats the blocker for a sack, and a fumble. You’ll see if the QB sidesteps the rush to throw the bomb or dumps off to a secondary target. Will the receiver get to the ball before the defender does? Watch the runner or receiver gallop with defenders in pursuit. Will they catch him in time?

If you love the Strat-O-Matic board game, you can purchase the card-image add-on to see the cards displayed on screen and the dice rolls that generated the result. In this way, you can tell whether that big gain happened because the defense was out of position or whether the superior talent of the skill player just dominated.

Strat-O-Matic’s unmatched play value among text sims means you can have all this in half the time it takes to watch a real NFL game. No worries – the fun continues after the final whistle with a stats report that will blow you away! You’ve never seen anything like this – ALL the stats you’d expect, plus drive charts and highlights. An amazingly detailed analysis of play-calling tendencies will let you analyze the keys to victory – or scout your opponent for the next game!

Find out why so many gamers think Strat-O-Matic computer pro football rocks. Join thousands of them in online communities offering each other tips, memories, fellowship – and new Netplay opponents!

How to Play Strat-O-Matic Pro Football (board game)

Three games in one, Strat-O-Matic Pro Football plays at the Basic, Advanced and Super-Advanced level. You’ll be playing the Basic game within minutes, because it’s as easy as this:

On offense, choose your ball-carrier for one of three runs (inside, off tackle or sweep) or your intended receiver for one of three passes (in the flat, a short-range pass downfield, or a deep throw). On defense, guess run or pass, knowing that being right or wrong can make all the difference. Then roll three six-sided dice.

The first die directs you either to the offensive player’s card or to the team-defense card. Then add the other two dice for results 2-12. If it’s offense, you’ll see that whatever most defines a player’s talent will show up on the most common dice combinations. Maybe he gains the tough yards or is a breakaway runner. Maybe he’s the high-catch possession receiver or the lower-catch deep threat. Maybe he’s the high-percentage passer, the mad bomber or the scrambling quarterback. Whatever, he’ll come to life before your eyes.

As you anticipate the roll that will bring fist-pumping success or head-shaking frustration, you’ll see how much it matters for the defense to guess right. It can be the difference between missing a tackle at the line of scrimmage that springs a back to take it to the house.

If the roll sent you to the defense card, you’ll see that team’s strength or vulnerability – stuffing the run, sacking the passer, forcing turnovers or getting burned on the deep ball.

Strat-O-Matic’s most visual board game, Advanced Pro Football, will make you feel like the quarterback surveying the field ahead of you, or the middle linebacker staring into the eyes of the quarterback. You have all the usual plays, but this time you run right or left, perhaps behind your elite-blocking lineman or at a weaker defender – or perhaps where the defense won’t expect it. You’ll have to “read” that defense to make the right call, because the linebackers and free safety move to strengthen the defense in select running and passing zones – while leaving other zones unattended. At this level, the football fan learns how players not even involved in the play can influence the play-calling and the performance of his teammates in sport’s ultimate team game.

In Super-Advanced play, there are additional formations, a dynamic new pass-rush system and other options that will make playing Strat-O-Matic as intense as coaching from an NFL sideline.